Opinion

It has been said that the first casualty of war is the truth. After reading an article in The Lancaster News entitled, “Mulvaney challenges Spratt on budget, taxes,” it seems truth is also a victim of Mr. Mulvaney’s attempt to unseat Mr. Spratt.

Mr. Mulvaney claims that the House of Representatives will fail to pass a budget for the first time since 1974. That is simply not true.

The last time the House failed to pass a budget was in 2006, when the Republicans were in the majority.

I want to personally apologize for the cancellation of the BloodStock blood drive on July 22 at the Van Wyck Community Center. Due to technical difficulties, the blood drive was cancelled.

The donors who had left phone numbers were contacted immediately to inform them of the situation. If you were not called, I apologize. Many people were contacted and were attempted to be contacted and I apologize if you fell through the cracks and were not contacted.

Our military can win anywhere in the world, when allowed. Yet, President Barack Obama repeatedly speaks to reducing our forces? Our troops are brave and strong, but how many rotations does he expect them to make? Will the sacrifice of laying down their lives ever end. He has said that it is his opinion the military should pay for their medical, be reduced in size and take pay cuts. “Troops understand the risk of injury when they volunteer to serve,” Obama said. How stupid is that? Get a leg blown off and pay for it to? No thanks.

We attended a Lancaster outdoor Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party on July 3. On April 15 we attended a Tea Party at the same location. About 300 people attended the April event and about 500 attended the July party.

Although the Foundation acknowledged and thanked Donna for her work and the money she raised, we neglected to thank the community of Lancaster for supporting Donna in her efforts to help find a cause and a cure of KLS.

A resident of Belair, which is in the suburbs of Indian Land, found no place to eat on Sunday. Musta been a recent arrival, apparently the straight-up-the-road drive to Pineville or Ballentine alluded her.

Then there is the employee of a bistro, who thinks a little wine with a Sunday luncheon will bring in loads of income for her establishment.

I want to reply to Arlene C. Harris, whose letter to the editor, “Grandmother mad about comments,” in the July 16 edition of The Lancaster News, referred to my online comments about her daughter.

You said that I made “stupid” comments. That means I got your attention.

I don’t know your daughter, but I was in a store when she approached me and started telling about a benefit to support her child, Jaylen Jackson, who was killed when she apparently got caught in the crossfire of a gunfight. I asked what happened and she told me.

I am writing in response to the article, “Should Sunday sales of alcohol be OK’d?,” in the July 21 edition of The Lancaster News.

What we need to remember is that Sunday is the Lord’s Day or what is generally referred to as the Sabbath Day.

Well, since Sunday is the Lord’s Day, then maybe we need to ask him if Sunday alcohol sales are acceptable to him. God, what is your answer to this question? “My answer is remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” that is the Lord’s answer for sure. He is never wrong.

With only a few weeks of summer vacation left, the thoughts of parents and children alike are turning back toward school and all that entails.

For many, that means new clothes, backpacks and school supplies.

But for those parents who are are out of work or struggling to make ends meet, it just means one more thing to stress out about. If you can barely pay your rent, how will you afford school supplies for your children?

Lancaster County Council should initiate a program that would allow for nonviolent offenders to serve their time at home.

Those who serve their time through the program would have to wear electronic-monitoring devices that monitor where they are through GPS, or global positioning system, technology. The technology would allow authorities to easily keep tabs on those sentenced to home detention, as GPS technology would pinpoint where they are at all times.

An Indian Land woman is hoping to get a referendum on the ballot in November 2012 that would let Lancaster County voters decide whether they want to OK the Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages at restaurants in the county.

We not only favor putting the referendum on the ballot, we also favor approving the referendum. We believe Lancaster County restaurants should be allowed to sell alcoholic drinks on Sunday if they want to.

Why not?

What’s the point of restricting Sunday sales of alcohol at Lancaster County restaurants?

After about six hours of intense enemy fire on a Cambodian hillside, former U.S. Army Capt. John P. “Jack” Monahan knew his platoon could not hold its position. There was little food, water and ammunition left.

They would have to withdraw. They adjusted artillery barrages to cover their movement. The wounded Monahan led the survivors to safety several hundred yards down a hill while carrying a wounded soldier on his hip with one hand and firing an M-16 with the other.

They came to rest behind some huge tree stumps. That was May 19, 1970.

This letter is to address the online commenter “blond but not dumb.” You know who you are, you went online June 9 and made some very stupid comments about my daughter on our letter, “Jaylen’s family grateful for support.”

Your comments were: “I very much got the impression that the mother was taking up for her boyfriend. How could a mother live with herself knowing that she allowed the child to be around that kind of environment. The little girl was so beautiful and she shouldn’t gone through that situation.”

“This is not the time to save – it’s the time to spend. We’ve got to spend to help our economy.” This was a quote from city councilwoman Sara Eddins. These words were spoken in context to the 2 percent raise and the $20,752 to cover the 12.7 percent increase in health insurance coverage for city employees.

We are here to mark four years since Continental Tire ceased manufacturing operations and sent hundreds of area jobs to Brazil and Mexico.

We believe that in July of 2006 when Continental Tire suspended production in Charlotte that there were determining factors that entitled Continental’s Charlotte employees certain benefits coinciding with the production suspension.

We believe those benefits should have been provided just like benefits were provided to Continentals employees at their Mayfield Kentucky plant in 2005 under similar circumstances.